Reflections of a True Millennial

Hola hola, It is Christmas Eve! The weather for Plantation, FL is 82 degrees and in Rancagua, Chile it is 85 degrees, so this is a typical Christmas Eve for me. Meanwhile, my companion from Vermont and most of the other Americans are wondering where the snow is at. Next Tuesday we have changes, and I will be staying in the office and staying in Recreo for the 6th change in a row (the members are starting to wonder why I have been there for so long). But I will be getting a new companion, Elder Villegas from Colombia. I lived with him in my first change in Recreo, so I already know him well and we are excited to be working together. Also I will be the district leader of the office, which is kind of a new thing. President Harris wants us 6 office missionaries to be able to get out to our sectors more and share the gospel more with others, so I am supposed to help in that effort. I am excited and I know that we will be able to see a lot of success! This week a ton of my time got involved

Hello, Merry Christmas! Well it is not Christmas quite yet, but we have been in the full swing of Christmas activity here. This week my companion and I participated in 3 Christmas conferences. He is a great piano player, so he accompanies the missionaries. I have discovered that I dont like practicing singing much, so I have filled my time doing other tasks while the missionaries practice. But I have participated in the performances and they have all been very special. This week we visited an old folks home and two rehab centers and had great experiences. It is special to see people as they feel Gods love for them for the first time in a long time. Other than that we went to Santiago yesterday and that was fun. Public transportation here is really great actually. We basically got directly from the Peruvian Consulate in the middle of Santiago to the doorstep of the mission office in the middle of Rancagua via metro and then bus. Pretty impressive.  Next week we will be working on some m

Hola, Hope that you have all had a good week. It has been a good one here. This week the mission home hosted the first four Christmas conferences and they all went very well. In the conference the missionaries practice some musical numbers and then perform a small show at a local nursing home or rehab center. They also see the end of the year video that Elder Sawyer and I made and enjoy a Christmas lunch at the mission home of ham, potatoes, carrots, and candy cane cake. (It is pretty tasty, but we ending up eating that 3 times this week and will surely eat it a few more times...) The performances have gone great and the missionaries and old folks have really enjoyed it and felt a special spirit. We participated in a presentation at the hospital on Thursday and it went well. Not too much else has happened in the office this week. We are continually working on visas. Next weekend will start all the final events for the missionaries that are going home. And we drove up to Santia

Hello, It has been a crazy week here. I guess the stereotype for the Christmas season is being very busy all the time. I never really understood that before because when you are a kid it is probably the least busy time of year. But in the office we have had a lot to do! Starting next week we have zone conferences and we have prepared nursing homes for everyone to go sing to during the 8 conferences. Also we finished up our slideshow video recapping the year and it really turned out great. Elder Sawyer played a custom piano accompaniment and I hope all the missionaries enjoy it. Besides all of that we have had to jump through hoops here in Rancagua to get some visas done. My companion also somehow got the idea to buy an electronic piano and amp to use for the Christmas conferences so we spent some time researching and buying that. Add in a trip north to Santiago on Tuesday and a one night stay down south in Talca on Thursday and it has been a very busy week! But the true importance of C

Hola, Things have been going well here. This week we have been working on some projects for the mission for Christmas. First off, in December the mission will have 8 zone conferences in Rancagua, and as part of that the missionaries will be singing Christmas carols in a nursing home, rehab center, etc to share Christmas spirit. Elder Sawyer and I are in charge of finding 8 different places to host us. Those kinds of places arent as well organized here as they would be back home, so it has been a bit difficult, but so far we have found 3 places that will let us come. Should be a great experience for all the missionaries. Also I have been working on our missions Christmas video for this year, which showcases pictures of everything that has happened in the year. A 15-minute slideshow is pretty boring, so we are spicing it up with a bit of a storyline and clips of the videos of Jesus Christ that the Church has made. My companion is also a piano whiz, so I planted the idea that he

Hola, So we changed p-day back to Saturday. It wasnt working out so much on Mondays. This week was pretty good and pretty busy. Last Tuesday were the changes. Elder Sawyer and I are sticking around as secretaries for another change (marking my 5th change in Recreo..), so that is exciting. We had lots of work to do regarding the changes, so it has been a busy week. On Monday we drove to the airport in Santiago to drop off the missionaries who are going home. Then on Tuesday we were back up there bright and early to drop off more missionaries and pick up the ones arriving to the mission. So we were pretty sleep-deprived on Tuesday, but thats okay. Since then we have been working on entering the new missionaries into all the systems and doing other change related things. And yesterday we did the final visa work for 6 more missionaries. Fun stuff. Work in the sector has been a bit slow this week, but things are going well. Julian and Gabriela are starting to progress well by g

Hello, It has been a busy week here. Today is P-Day but we wont get hardly any free time, because we have a lot of work to do. Tomorrow is transfers, and we have to coordinate a lot of logistics for travel, especially for the departing and arriving missionaries. Tonight we will be driving 7 missionaries to the airport to go home. Then 4 more tomorrow morning and picking up 10 new missionaries. Should be fun. All the missionaries that are going home have been staying in our house for the past 3 days, so it is a mess. We also did a ton of work on visas this week. It is funny because whenever we have to bring in other missionaries to do their visas, they are so bored, meanwhile we are stressed out to get everything done smoothly. Currently there is a strike in all the public offices in Chile, and they are only attending certain amounts of people in certain places. Luckily we were able to beat the strike and finish everything we needed to do. It has been a very busy week.  Oh and I am not

Hola hola, It has been another good week. In the office we are moving things along for lots of missionaries to get their visas, but unfortunately the government is in strike, so it is incredibly difficult to get things done on our schedule. Oh well. Our other major responsibility is preparing the plans for the missionaries that will be going home this change. This Friday they will all be coming to Rancagua for a weekend of final events. We are also bringing a group of missionaries up on Friday to finish ther visa process and receive their ID. It can be really complicated to plan all that because we have to make sure that every missionary is not left alone and that they all get where they need to go. But we have been able to get things done well, and it has been pretty entertaining. The normal missionary work is going pretty well too. Yesterday I was feeling kind of down before Church started for some unrelated reasons, but as everyone filled in the chapel I realized the impact

Hola hola, It has been a good week here. I am settling into the new routine and everything is going well. I wont go into the details of all the office stuff, but we mostly do the odds and ends that are necessary to run the mission. A lot of the things we do are actually pretty similar to things we had to do in high school to run robotics. On Tuesday we traveled to Santiago for some visa things, and it was cool to be there again. It felt weird to walk around the CCM and outside the Temple. We also got to take the metro and travel through part of Santiago, it was neat. On Friday we also participated in the Mission Leadership Council that includes all the Zone Leaders and Sister Coordinators. The group set goals for the mission and it was inspiring to see the vision that President Harris has for the mission. It is cool to be able to participate in lots of mission events, see lots of missionaries, and travel to other places. This week we have been able to get out to our sector a lot more t

Hola hola, Yeah it is only Saturday, but today is our Pday. Next week I will be back to Pday on Monday. It has been an interesting week working as the secretary. We are still working out how to balance the office responsibilities and normal missionary work, and we havent been able to do much normal missionary work so far. This week there was a special training for various parts of the mission on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, so we were involved in many behind-the-scenes things for those meetings. For example, on Tuesday and Wednesday we drove Presidents Chevy Traverse to pick up 30 pizzas for everyone. We have been able to do some other things, mostly typical office work so far. The special training for the mission was pretty great too. President talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our work, and I hope to be able to share this important book with everyone. I really like a scripture from 2 Nephi 33:10 Hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe n

Hola, Hope that you have all had a great week, it has certainly been an interesting one here. This week I was able to do two exchanges with the zone leaders and with the elders from my district and they were a great experience. On Wednesday I went with Elder Alves (the zone leader) to his sector and we had a really powerful day. That morning we had learned in our zone training the importance of testifying of companion. Honestly, I always thought it was kind of cliché to say things like "I testify of the words of my companion," and dont think I had ever said that before. But, we tried hard to apply that on Wednesday and our lessons were very powerful. One investigator was skeptical, but even thanked us for our passion and unity. Elder Alves and I had never worked together before, but we really had the Spirit guiding us. If you think about it, this prinicple is evident in the Scriptures. Jesus Christ always testifies of the Father, and the Father always testifies of Christ. Whe

Hola hola, It has been a good start to another change here in Recreo. I feel like I have been here forever, but it is nice to stay in the same sector. We have been able to teach some more people this week and things are going well. It has been going well being a district leader as well. On Wednesday, I taught class on being a succesful missionary and the importance of setting goals. On Friday, all the district leaders had a special conference with President Harris and the Asistants. It was really powerful. Presidente Harris really has a vision for the mission and I know that depending on our faith and effort, we can see miracles. I hope I can do my part well. We talked partly about praying with faith. Faith is both belief and action, so when we pray we shouldnt just ask for what we need, but we should also tell our Heavenly Father what we will do. "I ask thee for this.... I will do this...." That is showing our faith, and God will be able to bless us more. Have a

Hola Hola, Hope that you have all had a great week and that everyone enjoyed General Conference. We had a good weekend here an I enjoyed all the talks. I really liked the talk from Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita about being "ambitious in Christ."  If we truly are ambitious in Christ we can face our challenges with patience and faith, finding joy in them. I also really enjoyed talks by Elder Oaks and Elder Andersen about member involvement in missionary work. I really hope that everyone can apply their suggestions and share the Gospel with all people. We had three investigators come to the last session yesterday, which was great. Also after the session we taught a super solid part-member family for the first time. Things are rolling along here. And thankfully, I will be staying here in Recreo for another transfer with Elder Everett! That will make at least six months in the sector, but I am glad to be staying. Also this transfer I will be a district leader, which means that I will b

Hola, Wow this week went by very quickly. We are still pushing the rock here and trying to get things moving. This weekend in our ward we had a mini-mission activity for the youth. It turned out to be a great success. On Friday they were trained in a mini-MTC, then on Saturday they had their studies and went out to work and talk to as many people as possible. They did things in the missionary fashion (eating lunch with members, waking up and going to sleep on time, dresssing in shirts and ties, etc.) and had a great experience. Last night we had a closing fireside and it was super inspirational to hear the testimony of all the youth that participated. Almost all of them said that if they could they would leave today to go on their missions. It made me realize that I need to appreciate more the time that I have here. Even though some days we dont see much progress in anything, every day is an opportunity to share the Gospel with children of God. This weekend is General Conference, which

So the Spanish word for barbecue is "asado," but if you are Chilean you would say it as "asaito." (And depending on how you are saying it you may even say "asaito-po.") But that is the title of my email, because we had many asados this past week. Sunday was the Independence Day of Chile, so the whole country was in party mode for 4 days (everything was closed yesterday, so that is why I am writing this letter today). But we were treated to asados with members on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and even had a mini asado with missionaries yesterday. I think I would be okay eating salad for the next few weeks.... But we had a good weekend. It is not a good time to get much work done, but we took advantage of the time visiting members and relaxing a little bit (and we even got a referral out of it, and possibly a few more). Yesterday we went to Machalí to a big festival they had for the holiday. I bought this super cool balsa wood model of old Chileans singing o

Hola hola, So theres a story that I have heard that I really like and want to share. I am not sure where it is from (possibly President Uchtdorf), so if anyone knows, let me know. But yeah, so the story goes that a boss hired a worker and gave him the job of pushing a gigantic rock. That was his only task, to push this gigantic boulder. So the worker gets up and goes to work and spends all of his energy pushing the rock. He sweats and works, trying his very hardest, but the rock doesnt move an inch. The next day he tries again, using all of his energy, but it doesnt move at all. He tries again day after day after day, but he just cant get it to move. So after a few days, the boss comes to see what has happened, and the rock hasnt moved at all. The boss called in his worker to talk with him, and the worker comes in with his head hanging down, sure that his boss will be angry. So the boss sits him down and asks how the job went. Of course the worker is dejected and replies that he couldn

Hola hola, I think the title of my email could also be the title of a Richards family memoir. Or at least a Scott Richards memoir... But the title comes from the fact that this week I got a package from my family, including food and other things from the Estados Unidos! Wooooo! It was great to get that, and I am thankful to my parents for sending it. We are working hard here in Recreo, trying to find people. We did find one new investigator named Leo. He is an interesting guy and is very happy. We have another appointment with him today, so hopefully it goes well. We also had our Capilla Abierta in Recreo yesterday. It was nice and the members did their part well. And attached is a picture of Elder Everett and I. He is a great missionary and a good companion. Plus, I found out that he kind of likes the Dolphins, so of course we get along well. Elder Richards ​

Hola hola, So I am here with my brand new companion, Elder Everett from Mesa, Arizona! He is a great missionary and excited to be out here. He didnt know any Spanish at all before the mission, but can already talk and understand pretty well. Of course it is hard for him to understand the Chileans (they speak very very quickly), but he is catching on.  On Monday night we had a meeting with all of the trainers, and then on Tuesday all of the new guys got here. After the meeting, Presidente Harris told Elder Everett and I that he really knew that we should be together as companions. It is amazing the revelation he can receive for the whole mission, and I know he is inspired in his decisions. Elder Everett is a great missionary and we are working hard. We had kind of a slow week because we are in the process of trying to find new investigators. We havent had much luck yet, but we have a lot of people with potential, and have a few appointments for tonight and tomorrow. Also, this Sunday we

Hola hola, So this Thursday my companion Elder Schley wrapped up the mission and headed back home. For the weekend I was put with Elder Chaves, who also lost his comp (to an office position). Elder Chaves was my companion in San Clemente about 8 months ago, so it was pretty great to be with him again. However we had kind of a hectic weekend running all over Rancagua to cover both of our sectors, a Capilla Abierta in another ward, etc. But it was a good time. Today we will continue running around Rancagua, because the transfers came and I will be staying in Recreo and training a brand new missionary! Tonight we have a meeting for trainers, and tomorrow all the new kids arrive and I will hear who my new companion is. I am super excited to be training and a little nervous, but ready for the challenge of having a brand new missionary. I am excited. So yeah, next week I will let you all know who my companion is. I am excited and hoping to have a great week. Today I was reading

Hola hola, This week I found a scripture that I like in DC 90:24 Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. God doesnt ask us to change the world. He always asks us to do the small and simple things, such as search, pray, and believe. If  we do that, He will bless us in all aspects of our lives. So on Thursday, my companion is finishing the mission and going home. From then until Tuesday I will be in a trio with some other elders who are losing their companions. Then next Tuesday are the transfers and I will be with a new companion. I am excited and hope that goes well. Also this week we had an interesting experience by visiting a guy from Orlando, Florida. That doesnt happen every day.. He is a pastor, but is very supportive of the Mormons around the world. I felt like I was in our ward at home talking to this guy i

Hola, Its been a good week here. This Wednesday we went up to Buin to present the Capillas Abiertas and they loved it and are on board to get it started. On Tuesday we will be down in Curicó. Also, the very first Capillas Abiertas in our mission took place on Saturday here in Rancagua in the Villa Teniente branch. It was a great event and everything went well. During the event, we were out on the streets with all the missionaries of the zones to contact and invite people in. It was a good experience. This is a great program and I am glad we can be a part of it. It will be taking place here in Recreo in the beginning of September, which should be a great opportunity for us to find new people. Carina and her son Camilo (who were baptized) are still doing great. They are really such an inspiration to me. Yesterday in Testimony Meeting at church, Camilo bore his testimony and talked about how his teacher in music class started making fun of Mormons, so he spoke up and defended his beliefs.

Hola, Its been a good week here. This Wednesday we went up to Buin to present the Capillas Abiertas and they loved it and are on board to get it started. On Tuesday we will be down in Curicó. Also, the very first Capillas Abiertas in our mission took place on Saturday here in Rancagua in the Villa Teniente branch. It was a great event and everything went well. During the event, we were out on the streets with all the missionaries of the zones to contact and invite people in. It was a good experience. This is a great program and I am glad we can be a part of it. It will be taking place here in Recreo in the beginning of September, which should be a great opportunity for us to find new people. Carina and her son Camilo (who were baptized) are still doing great. They are really such an inspiration to me. Yesterday in Testimony Meeting at church, Camilo bore his testimony and talked about how his teacher in music class started making fun of Mormons, so he spoke up and defended his

Hola hola, Its been a decent week here in Recreo. This Wednesday was my birthday, woooo! It was a pretty good day. In the morning we had zone meeting and everyone sang and I got some desserts. Most of the rest of the day was normal, but we also spent time visiting Carina and Camilo, which was nice.  The rest of the week went well too. Somehow we did exchanges three days in a row this week. The best one was when I got to be with Elder Bustamante, my first companion, on Thursday! He was up in Rancagua for a zone leader meeting and we got to do exchanges after, which was great. I havent seen him since November, so it was great to work together for a day. And as for the title of my email, Elder Schley and I decided to count Chevrolet Sparks one day while we were on exchanges. He found 104 and I found 53. Now every time we see one we just automatically say "Spark" haha. Anyway, things are going pretty well. Have a great week! Elder Richards ​Yo y Elder Bustamante

Hey there, So this week we were able to travel on Tuesday and Sunday for our assignment with Capillas Abiertas. On Tuesday night we traveled by bus to Talca to meet with the stake president and present this program. He was really touched by the Spirit and is really excited to start it, so he invited us back for Sunday to meet with all the Bishops in the stake. Yesterday we made that presentation and it went great. At the end lots of wards signed up to do the event in the next few months. From there we went to San Fernando and presented to the District Presidency. They are on board and are going to do their first event in September. Yesterday was a really fun trip because we were in a minivan with Elder Kemp and Elder Estrella (the secretaries) and Elder & Hermana Christiansen (a senior couple in the mission). Hermana Christiansen even brought us sandwiches and homemade cookies for the ride. It was like having a grandma on the mission haha. Well things are going well here. My compan

Hola hola, Hope you have all had a good week. I am here in Recreo with my new companion, Elder Schley. Well, he isnt very new since he finishes the mission and goes home in 4 more weeks. So I went from training a new missionary to finishing an old one. It is definitely very different, but we are working well together. He may or may not talk too much about what he will be doing at home in a few weeks, but we are still working hard :) Elder Schley was born in Kazikhstan (sp?) and at 12 years old, he was adopted and since then lives in the US. He is a good missionary. We have a special assignment this change that we are pretty excited about. The Church is starting a program in this area called Capillas Abiertas, which is an Open House program for all the chapels. Elder Schley and I are in charge of presenting this program to all the Stake/District Presidents over the next few weeks. So this week we had a few meetings with Presidente Harris and Elder Christiansen, a senior missionary. Tomo

Hola hola, Its been an eventful week here in Recreo. First and foremost, Carina was baptised this Saturday and confirmed yesterday! She is very happy and it was a really special experience. So she has an hernia in her spine that prevents her from being able to lean forward or backward, and causes a lot of pain. So that kind of complicates things for baptism, where you have to lean back in the water... But she was determined to take this step and be baptised. So we decided that both Elder Silva and I should be in the baptismal font to help her. Elder Silva did the baptism and I helped support her in going down and back up. It was definitely an interesting baptism. It was a really emotional moment after, because she was in a lot of pain, but also happy. Baptism and confirmation are ordained of God and brings us the remission of sins and the accompany of the Holy Ghost. Carina is such an example of faith, because even though she has this physical pain, she was willing and able to take thi

Hola hola, Hope you have all had a great week. Life is going well here in Rancagua. Lots of big news this week. First of all I finally bought a Chile soccer jersey. Okay, sorry I guess thats not big news for any of you...  Something actually significant is that Presidente y Hermana Harris arrived this week! They showed up to our district class on their second day here, and Elder Silva and I even did a practice with Presidente. Pretty cool opportunity. We also had a special conference with them on Saturday and brief interviews. Presidente Harris is very excited to work and it will be interesting to see the changes he makes here. Another significant thing is that on Friday I hit one year in the mission. Whoa! Time flies very quickly and I can not believe that I am more than halfway done with the mission. I feel like a old and kind of experienced missionary, but at the same time, I have a year left. I am excited to have another year of opportunity to learn and grow. I know that this is th

Hola hola, Its been a pretty good week here in Recreo, and this next week should be interesting. We have a few investigators progressing really well, and we are excited to work with them. Last week I talked about Belen who went to Church for the first time. She couldnt go this week because he son was sick, but she did go to a ward activity on Saturday (where us missionaries sung a very embarassing arrangement), and loved it. All the members are befriending her and offering to bring her to church, etc. Her husband works a lot in a gym and for O´Higgins FC (the soccer team here), so we dont know him yet, but he is interested in hearing our message and we are going to start teaching him too. We are really excited for their family and their potential. Tomorrow our mission president, President Warne, finishes his mission and heads back home. President Harris will be our new mission president. It should be interesting to see what changes will happen. This Saturday we will have a conference a

Hola hola, Its been a great week in Recreo. This week we were able to have a lot more lessions and help a few of our investigators really move along. We have also really increased our work with the members and had more lessons with members than without. Having a local member of the Church in a lesson is great because then the investigators can have a friend in the Church who is a normal person (not a missionary) and who wont be leaving in a few more months (like the missionaries). The title of my email is "The Day of Rest" which refers to what we call the Sabbath Day in english, or Sunday. Yesterday was a really great Sunday and I definitely enjoyed Church. In Isaiah 58:13-14 it says: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, fromdoing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath adelight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:  Then shalt thou delight thyself in t

Hola hola, Its been an interesting week here in Recreo. We have spent a lot of time, but really a LOT of time, contacting this week, trying to find new people. We have a few solid investigators, but by some reason or another, we only ended up teaching 3 lessons this whole week (when about 10 is average). I dont know if it was a lack of planning or just the way things had to work out, but we didnt get a lot of teaching in this week. Strangely enough, the week still went by pretty quickly. Elder Silva is a great missionary, and we had a good attitude the whole week, and worked hard. In all aspects of our lives, God blesses us  after  the trial of our faith. We are already seeing blessings, as we had a great lesson with an investigator yesterday, and have three solid lessons planned for tonight.  In the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:6 it says I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye rece

Hola hola de Rancagua, Hope that you have all had a great week. I am enjoying my new sector and being with my new companion, Elder Silva. He only has about 2 months in the mission, but already is a great missionary. He is super humble and always asking me for advice and how he is doing with teaching and other things, and I am happy to be able to help him out. He is from Brazil so sometimes the spanish and the portuguese mix up a bit, but thats okay haha. Since we are in training, we have an extra hour in the morning to study where I can help teach Elder Silva from a program for new missionaries. I have enjoyed teaching him, and hope that it helps. As for our sector, its pretty great too. It is way different than all my other sectors, because we are in the heart of the city. That means that a lot of people have tougher attitudes and tell us straight up that they dont want anything (and often not too nicely..) But as it says in DyC 4:4 "the field is white already to harvest." S

Hola todos! So we got the changes. And keeping with my pattern of only having all my companions for six weeks, I am moving to another sector with a new companion! I am going to Recreo, which is a ward right in the center of Rancagua (which is the biggest city in the mission). So finally I get to experience the mission in a city, I´m pretty excited. I have loved all my other sectors, but I am pretty tired of traveling all the time. My new companion will be Elder Silva. He is from Brazil and only has one transfer in the mission, so I will be his trainer too! I´m pretty excited to be training, and hope I can help him out as a new missionary. My companion here is staying in Las Cabras and he´ll be training too. So we figure we did something really good or really bad this last transfer to be both training now. Anyway, it was a great 3 months in Las Cabras. I have really learned how to trust in God and let him lead us. This change we found 35 new investigators, which is a lot. A lot of them

Hola hola! Its been another great week, but today was a particularly great day! So here in Las Cabras, theres just a giant hill right next to town. We have always kind of wanted to climb up, but never knew where to start. We were talking with a friend on Saturday, and he told us where the trailhead was, so we decided to go for it. We went with Elder Waters (my MTC companion) and Elder Vasquez (who I lived with in San Clemente) and climbed up the hill today! It was a super steep "trail" but it was way fun. The view from the top was incredible! We could see Las Cabras surrounded by crop fields and the valley on the other side full of other crops. It was super cool. We did a little barbecue on top and had a great day. I would send pics but Im on a ghetto computer and I dont know if I trust putting my camera in. Im always good for an analogy, so maybe our little hike can be an analogy. In life we have to enjoy the journey and remember our goal. It was a steep climb, but we wanted

Hola hola, This week we have had a pretty good week. There have been ups and downs but we are working hard. We were about to put baptismal dates with 4 different people, which is always a positive moment, but already some of them are facing big challenges and doubting what they want to do. So yeah, the work goes up and goes down pretty quickly. But we are working hard. One really cool guy that we found is Juan Carlos. He is 20 years old and actually lives in a nearby little town called Quilicura. But he works in Las Cabras during the week. We found him at his work, and he let us in twice this week to teach him a bit. At first he didnt seem too interested, and just like a normal person. But we started to ask him about his relationship with God and stuff and he told us that his grandpa died when he was a kid, and he hasnt been close to God since then. But he told us that he wants to be closer to him and wants to hear us. He is very sincere and accepted a baptismal date of June 11th. He i

Hey everyone! I hope you have had a great week, this week went really well for me (and went by very quickly!). One of the highlights of course was talking to my family via Skype yesterday for Mothers Day! Im glad that I had the chance to do that, and of course I am thankful for my eternal family.  This Wednesday I went on splits with Elder Edwards in San Fernando, and we had a super great day. Elder Edwards is from Alpine, Utah and only has two months left in the mission. I have known  him my whole mission, so we are good friends, and it was great to work with him. We  basically had planned to contact all day with the goal to get into at least one house. On our very last contact, we found a guy named Gastón, and he let us in! I was feeling pretty good once we got in, but then this guy completely surprised us. He just started talking about his beliefs and  brought up baptism by himself, and how he really likes that we should be baptised in the same way Jesus Christ was. He also said he

Hola hola, Hope that everyone has had a great work. We are continuing to work hard here and had a pretty good week. Today we played soccer and ate quesadillas in Pday so that was nice. We are continuing to work with Rodrigo and Katy, the family from San Clemente. They havent accepted a baptismal date yet, but are thinking about it. Rodrigo had kind of a rough childhood and doesnt feel that he has much of a spiritual side. But he also wants a good life for his family and is recognizing the importance of following Jesus Christ. We shared the Book of Mormon and they are goign to read a part we left and pray. I hope they can receive answers and follow the truth.  We are also working with Romerindo and Gina, who are about 70 years old. They are Catholic and love having us over. They are very nice, and always willing to listen to us. Gina is having a hard time accepting the fact that we should be baptised by the authority of God, and we are going to teach the Restoration to help

Hola hola, Its been a good week here in Las Cabras. I am here with my new companion Elder Shumway. He has 1 year in the mission (just a bit more than me), and is from Michigan (relatively close to Detroit). Hes a good guy and we have had a lot of success this week. Particularly we have had success in finding new investigators. Last transfer we spent a lot of time contacting in Las Cabras. Contacting is a good way to find people, but if that is all we do, it isnt too effective. I decided that this week I wanted to look for old investigators in our area book (mostly because I was tired of contacting...). So we have been looking for old investigators, contacting, and asking everyone for referrals, and we have found a lot of success. This week we taught 9 new investigators, which is really great. Some of them didnt seem extremely interested, but some of them have a lot of potential. On Tuesday we found Rodrigo and Katy and their daughter Francisca. Actually we found Katy conta

Hola hola, Hope that everyone had a great week. its been a pretty normal week here, but a good one. On Wednesday we had a great lesson with Jose Luis. He says he has a testimony about our Church and that it is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, but this week he told us he appreciates what he has learned, but is going to keep going to his old church too. So we went over the Restoration and Priesthood authority and helped him realize the importance of being baptised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One key scripture was 2 Nefi 31:17 For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. At the end of the lesson, Jose Luis said that it wouldn´t be right to enter this gate and then go back to his old ways. So he is going to pray to find out if he should follow this path. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect. It can bless all people in all places, and as we follow it, we can en

Hola hola! It has been a great week, and of course a great weekend. This weekend we were in San Fernando all weekend to watch the General Conference broadcast there. Of course there was lots of junk food consumed (including suprisly good fast food milkshakes) and good times had (12 missionaries staying in one house), but more importantly there were a lot of amazing messages heard. As I explained a bit last week, the General Conference is an event that happens twice a year where the Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of the Church speak to all members of the Church (and all the world). There were many great talks, and I still havent processed all the things I heard. But an overarching theme that I saw was our divine heritage and potential. We are literally sons and daughters of God. Each of you has a Heavenly Father. Likewise, each of us has a Savior, Jesus Christ. He took ALL of our pains and sins and sufferings so that we can become better. We have the potential to reach perfection

Hola! I hope you have all had a great week. Things are going well here in Las Cabras, and we took advantage of the Semana Santa (as they say here in Chile) to teach as many people as possible about Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was a long holiday weekend for Easter, so we were able to find lots of people in their houses.  We have several investigators who we are working with, and one super great couple is Gonzalo y Rosa. They have had a lot of doubts about getting involved with any religion. When we passed by the other day Gonzalo came out and told us he didnt want to involve himself with any religion, but we talked him through it and he let us in to teach. We taught about the Restoration and they both seemed much calmer and very interested in hearing more. This Gospel is for literally everyone, and there will always be obstacles to following it. Each of us needs to have the courage to follow what we know is right. Also, this upcoming weekend is General Conference! Th

Hola! Hope that you are all doing well. Here in Las Cabras, everything is good. This week we Zone Conference, Zone training, and this weekend was the San Fernando District conference. So we have been traveling a lot again, and stayed in the Pichidegua house on Friday night and the San Fernando house on Saturday night. But all the conferences and events were really great and inspiring to help us work better. The work has been moving along in Las Cabras. We have found a few new solid investigators and are excited to work with them. One is named Jose Luis and accepted to be baptised on April 16th. His wife died about a year ago, so the Gospel can really bless him. Also this week we have been sharing a new video that the Church made for Easter: #Aleluya (or #Hallelujah in English). Its really powerful and talks about the new life we can find through Jesus Christ. We showed it to one new investigator named Gonzalo and he was really touched by the Spirit. He had seen false things online abou

Hola Familia! It has been a good first week in Las Cabras! Unfortunately, I have yet to see any actual goats... But all is well. My new companion is Elder Llavilla from Peru. He only has about 4 months in the mission, and it has been great to be with such a young missionary. I have had a lot of opportunities to help him, and it has forced me to take the lead on some things that I am not always comfortable with. Speaking of things that I am not always comfortable with, this week we have done a lot of contacting. Seriously, a lot. I feel like I have talked to more people this week than in my entire life before. But I have basically (almost) lost my fear of knocking on someones door and starting a converastion with them. I know that the message we are sharing can bless every person, so its worth the occasional discomfort.  Also this week, I feel like I have taken more busses than ever before in my life. LasCabras is kind of far from everything. To get to San Fernando for district and zone

Hola! This week we have seen that God works in mysterious ways. First of all, Karina. I´ve written a lot about her. Last week she couldn´t go to church, and we thought she was just out late the night before, but it turns out she had to go to the hospital on Saturday night. And this week, she found out that she has been pregnant for about 2-3 months. (She separated from her husband about two months ago.)  Definitely a surprise. But she previously thought that she couldn´t have any more children, so it´s a miracle. And because she is pregnant, she has stopped drinking, smoking, and drinking tea and coffee AKA she is living the Word of Wisdom. It´s sad that her future daughter won´t have a dad in the picture, but this week we gave her "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" to help her see the value of raising children in the Gospel. She is progressing well, and should be able to be baptised in the next transfer. Second, Luis. Another investigator who has desires to change, bu

Also I don´t know how I forgot to write about it, but we had an awesome broadcast from Elder Bednar from Buenos Aires for all the missionaries in Argentina, CHile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. He told us to get a pen and paper, but to not write down anything he said, rather write the ideas and thoughts that the Holy Ghost brought to our mind. The broadcast was 2 and a half hours and he used the whole time asking questions to missionaries or letting them ask questions. The whole thing was a pattern of how we can use inspired questions to help our investigators learn and progress. He said a lot of the time we play "Guess what´s in my head" and ask questions with a specific answer, but to help others learn we should ask things that make them think and be better. It was a really great meeting, and I learned a lot. This Church is guided by Apostles and Prophets, just like the Church of Jesus Christ in the times of Christ. Elder Richards

Hola familia y amigos! Espero que hayan tenido una buena semana. Everything in Molina is great. This week Karina didn´t progress as much as we hoped and we are going to have to move her baptismal date until the end of the month. She didn´t make it to church yesterday, but we´ll get her there next week! But yesterday we had another investigator named Hector attend Church, which was an awesome miracle! Hector is an investigator from about a year ago, but he went to live in Concepcion for a while and lost contact. But two members went and knocked on his door the other day, found him, and then brought us on Thursday. We taught a little bit and he said he would definitely be in Church this week. He doesnt seem to have any major problems, so we are going to try to teach him everything and help him towards a baptism at the end of this month. When the members help in missionary work, miracles happen! Apart from that everything else is good. This week flew by and this Saturday we are going to h

Hola hola, It´s been a great week here in Molina. The weeks have really been flying by this transfer, and in just two more weeks we´ll have another change. Wow. But we are working hard and trying to get things done here in Molina. This week we worked especially hard with our investigator Karina and everything lead up to her attending church with a friend yesterday!! We were super excited to have her at church and she really enjoyed it. In preparation for that we introduced her to members and taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of wisdom, and the law of chastity. Karina is only 27 years old, but has a lot of trials in her life and has been going trhough a lot of difficult things. Just recently she separated from her husband, and is trying to support her and her 11 year old son with the store that she owns. The Gospel has helped her a lot so far, and she has the faith to keep learning. She is on track for baptism March 6th, and we hope she can keep that date. We do

Hey there, Don´t be alarmed, it is indeed Thursday and not Monday. But supposedly the missionary email system crashed on Monday, and the emails I sent may or may not have arrived. So we have time today to resend our emails. I dont think there were any problems with my email, but I´ll re-forward everything anyway. Have a great week, and we´ll talk again Monday! - Elder Richards --- Hello everyone, It has been a pretty good week. A lot of our investigators are kind of stalling and none of them went to Church this week, so we are going to try hard to progress them this week and get everyone to church. We were able to teach Luis about the Word of Wisdom and he is willing to quit smoking and drinking, so hopefully we can help him out with that. Also we have been working hard with Karina, although Saturday was her birthday and she couldn´t go to Church after being out super late. But she has desires to be better and still had the baptismal date of March 6th. Today I finished reading the Book